Seven American aid workers who responded to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are in a Kenyan isolation facility under a 21-day quarantine, according to Samaritan’s Purse.
The quarantine follows a new US policy requiring American citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo to spend three weeks in a third country before entering the United States.
Franklin Graham, president and chief executive of Samaritan’s Purse, said the organisation had seven American Disaster Assistance Response Team staff members at the facility.
“None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days,” Graham told Reuters.
The US government-built bio-isolation unit is located at an air force base in central Kenya and is intended for Americans exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda.
The facility has drawn criticism from some Kenyans, who have accused the United States of transferring the health risks associated with caring for Ebola patients.
Last month, Kenya’s health minister announced an immediate halt to construction of the unit after being found guilty of contempt of court for failing to comply with local court orders suspending work on the facility.
“Samaritan’s Purse has seven American Disaster Assistance Response Team staff members there,” Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse told Reuters in response to Reuters’ questions. “None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days,” Graham said.
A U.S. State Department official told Reuters that a group of asymptomatic Americans who had served on the front lines of the Ebola response had “voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation.”
“Kenyan authorities have authorized their movement into the facility under the observation of the U.S. Public Health Service clinicians,” the official said, adding that the decision was taken “strictly out of an abundance of caution.”
A senior Kenyan foreign ministry official said they did not have any information about the matter.
Another source familiar with the matter who asked for anonymity said that the group had arrived at the site in central Kenya on Monday and were sleeping in army cots in tents.
He said some had worked as medics treating Ebola patients at the Christian aid group’s treatment centres but others had worked in other functions with no direct contact with the sick, such as construction.
“There is one potential high risk exposure,” he said, adding that their health was being monitored. Kenyan authorities are not allowing the group to leave the facility to travel anywhere else in the country, he added.
By Agencies
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